Sunday, November 1, 2009

Pakistan’s Engro Plans to Ship Basmati Rice Overseas (Update1)

Pakistan’s Engro Plans to Ship Basmati Rice Overseas (Update1)


Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Engro Chemical Ltd., Pakistan’s third-biggest urea maker, plans to start a rice processing plant in central Punjab to ship the basmati variety to the Middle East and Europe.
The plant will be completed by the fourth quarter of 2010 at a cost of 3.2 billion rupees ($38.3 million), the company said in a statement to the stock exchange today. An equity injection of 1.6 billion rupees will be required, it said.
Pakistan, the world’s fourth-largest exporter of rice, has a production target of 6.4 million tons for next year, according to the farm ministry. It also plans to export 4 million tons of rice this year after production exceeded domestic consumption.
“Pakistani rice is very high quality but sells at a discount against competitors because it’s not branded or marketed properly,” Asad Umar, chief executive officer of Engro Chemical Pakistan said in an interview on Oct. 15.
Engro Chemical’s shares rose 0.5 percent to 167.90 rupees at 10:08 a.m. local time on the Karachi Stock Exchange. The share price more than doubled this year.

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